Hosea: Unfaithfulness (III)

Redeeming The Unfaithful Wife (3:1-5)

Neal Pollard

Many have debated who the woman is in this short chapter. Is it Gomer or another woman? Is this a review or retelling of the events in chapter one? The nature of the assignment given here makes it seem like this is, in fact, Gomer (the woman he married in chapter one). She appears to have been unfaithful to him, and now he is to go again and get her. He loves her, but she is an adulteress (1). That’s what makes the assignment meaningful. The Lord loves the children of Israel, with whom He already had a covenant relationship. But she (the sons of Israel) turns to other gods and the ritual practices (like raisin cakes) of idolatrous worship (1).

Hosea goes and pays for this prostitute that is already his wife (2). With this payment, there is an understanding that she will stay with him and not play the harlot. She would be faithful to him, and he pledges his fidelity to her (3).

Hosea gives the comparison in the last two verses. Just like Gomer was away from her husband, the sons of Israel would “remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols” (4). The last verse actually appears to anticipate the time of Messiah. There would be repentance (return). They would seek the Lord, which Amos will repeatedly call for (Amos 5-6). They would seek David their king, figuratively (perhaps in the sense of the One who would come from David, 2 Sam. 7:13-16). They would tremble before the Lord. They would come to His goodness. Why consider this Messianic? It would be “afterward” (5a; after the lengthy time without king, worship, or priests), and it would be “in the last days” (5b).

Hosea’s readers needed to understand the living metaphor of the prophet’s situation. They needed to see themselves in Gomer. They also needed to live in anticipation of the redemption and deliverance from the God they were spurning, who was offering them not only more than they deserved but much more than they could imagine.